Saturday, January 22, 2011

Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

Aspen Springs Psychiatric Hospital is a place for people who have played the ultimate endgame. The suicide attempt survivors portrayed in this novel tell starkly different stories, but these three embattled teens share a desperate need for a second chance. Ellen Hopkins, the author of Glass and Crank, presents another jarring, ultimately uplifting story about young people crawling back from a precipice.

Review

I really enjoyed Impulse, but that was sort of expected. Ellen Hopkin's novels always manage to strike a chord with me. Most readers can relate to at least one aspect of her novel: the controversial issues, a character, a situation or setting, or simply feeling as though their diary looks an awful lot like Ellen's pages. As always I thought her use of poetry and page editing added to the feeling of the book: the strict columns helped enforce the feeling of a psychiatric ward where everything must be in its place, but it was easy to distinguish dialogue between characters. After recently seeing a play about teenage suicide I sympathized with the main characters and felt like their attempts were handled in a very mature, realistic manner. It's often shown in today's society that people attempt suicide because they are bullied or feel neglected by friends, but in fact there can be several other underlying issues. Overall, yet another stellar teen novel by Ellen Hopkins.

Favourite Quote: "My happiest memories have no place in the past; they are those I have yet to create."